The Word of God
Text: John 1:1-14
July 8th 2007
Good morning. This week we are doing something very exciting. We are starting a new series. We recently finished a series on the teachings of Jesus through the book of Matthew and after a few weeks of topical sermons we are going to move into another series. This series will be on the character of Jesus from the Gospel of John. So for the rest of the year we will be looking at the characteristics of Jesus.
Now that may seem like a long series but truly there is no better topic to learn about than that of Jesus Christ. For Christ is the cornerstone of our faith. It is in Christ that we live, through Christ that we have life, and Christ that we follow after. In order to live a Christian life we must understand what that means. To do so we must understand what Jesus taught and how He lived. For this series we will take a look at how He lived.
DO AS I SAY….NOT AS I DO
Before we go too far we need to look at the biography of John.
One of my professors at school says that the measure of a genius is not one who can think up complex abstract thoughts. A genius is not someone that talks in big words and hard to understand concepts, that is an intelligent person. A genius is someone who can take the complex concepts of intelligent people and package them in a way that everyone can understand. This is the Gospel writer of John, a genius. He packages these complex ideas into beautiful images that a small child could understand: light-dark, salt, and things of the like. These are ideas that the slowest child can grasp, yet the brightest theologian can study for his or her entire life and not fully grasp their depth. John is a genius gospel writer. He writes in the simplest Greek of all the New Testament writers, yet his ideas and his use of imagery leaves even the greatest theologians always digging for more. So while Matthew, and Luke demonstrate a great intellectual understanding with complex ideas, it is John that can take those ideas and bring them down to the bottom shelf of understanding. John is the simplest to read but the most complex to understand. For John makes so many points subtlely that they can be easily missed.
Here are some of the things we know about John, John was one of the apostles. In fact he was the youngest apostle. His brother was the apostle James who is beheaded in Acts 12. He is the only apostle to not be martyred for his faith. And he walked in the inner circle of Jesus. We was with Jesus for three years while Jesus was doing his ministry. He has seen the miracles, he has heard the teaching, and he has had his life transformed. John and his brother James were given the nickname the ‘sons of thunder’ because of their zeal and passion. John during the course of his time with Jesus had seen and done many things, but some of the ones that stand out are these: He asked Jesus to call down fire from heaven to consume an inhospitable Samaritan village (Luke 9:54) he rebuked an exorcist for casting out demons because he was not an apostle (Luke 9:49), and he asked to sit at the right hand of Jesus in heaven (Matthew 20:21). John was not a timid, nor shy man by any means. Yet through the ministry with Jesus, after the resurrection something in John changed. He went from wanted to sit at the seat of honor in the kingdom of heaven, to recording a gospel where he does even mention himself by name. John’s life was turned completely around by Jesus. And when he writes this gospel, he writes as a changed man who desires only one thing, for everyone to come to a true and meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ the Lord.
That’s John in a nutshell. I would love to talk with you more about him but we simply do not have time today.
DO AS I SAY…NOT AS I DO
If you would open your Bibles to John 1:1. Today we are going to deal with one of thee most theologically complex concepts in the New Testament. The Word of God…the logos. Doctrinal Dissertations exceeding 100 pages have been written on this topic alone and we are going to try to cover it in less than an hour. From this text we get one of our few references to the trinity (which is never stated directly in scripture), a key look into the nature of God, creation, Jesus, and the existence of the world, and the power of God. To deal with this in any depth in the time we have is impossible. So this will be a readers digest version What we must do is look at a basic overview of the word of God. I want to be clear though: for everything we will say this week: it is only the tip of the ice berg. Before we get started, we are going to do something a little different after the service. Due to the nature of this text we cannot get through it all. After the sermon I am going to stay up here in the front- if you have questions or want to talk more about this extremely complex topic, I will be up here and we can go further in depth. Let’s begin:
Jn 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jn 1:2 He was with God in the beginning. Jn 1:3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. Jn 1:4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. Jn 1:5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. Jn 1:6 There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. Jn 1:7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. Jn 1:8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. Jn 1:9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. Jn 1:10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. Jn 1:11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Jn 1:12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— Jn 1:13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. Jn 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
DO AS I SAY…NOT AS I DO
Most of us have heard this said. Many of us were told this by our parents when we were little. Some of us may have said it ourselves. You see there are primarily two types of parents. There are parents who lead by example and parents who don’t play by their own rules. In our minds we have separated speech from action. For we know that a person can say one thing and do another. Words and actions can be related but they are rarely the same. It’s the whole if you talk the talk you should be able to walk the walk. There are a large number of people who can talk a good game, but never back it up. The sound good but that is about it because what they say and what they do are different.
In our text today WORD comes up a lot. Now this does not mean what we think of it as. WORD does mean literally a word- a message- a report but it means so much more than that. This word: logos can mean either a spoken word like a message or an unspoken word like a deed or action.
Here is where things get complex: Jesus is the word of God. He is the logos. Now the image that this paints is really cool: Jesus when He came to earth was the incarnation of God’s word meaning what Jesus did and what God said were the same. As the incarnation of God’s word Jesus’ actions and God’s message are not just similar they are identical. Jesus life is the word of God. What God says…and what God does…are the same thing. There is no difference. God is not a do as I say not as I do type of God because what God says IS what God does. So Jesus’ life is simply the visual display of God’s word. For Jesus is the word of God come to earth in the flesh. You can see how this concept is very complicated even to try and explain. The word of God and the action of God are really the same thing.
However logos means more than that as well. It is concerned to be the creative element or the active force of God. The logos is the power of God. It is the divine command. And what this text tells us is that God’s actions are His words. His words are so powerful that they create action. Notice how in Genesis God ‘spoke’ the world into existence. That is because God’s word controls and changes what happens in the world. What God says is true, and it will occur because God’s word is His action.
Like if God said: the sky will forever turn orange. The sky would become orange. Because what God says is what happens because all life is dependent on the word of God.
DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO is a human construct. We have differentiated between what is spoken and what is. For God they are one in the same.
One of the key characteristics of Jesus is that He is the word of God. As we work through this study of John we are going to look at the character of Jesus to understand better who Christ is and thus to better understand what it means to be a Christian. To follow Christ we must have some understanding of who Christ was. Our text today tells us that He is the word of God. He is the creator of the universe. He is the divine power through which the whole world exists. What He says and does are both the word of God.
It is not in the nature of God to separate speech from action. It should not be in our nature either. Many Christians talk a good game but never back it up. We say: we need to love our brothers as we gossip about them behind their backs. We preach love while we live hate. We demand love as we dish out bitterness and resentment. We will tell people we love them but do nothing for them. In fact many who claim the love of Christ are full of bitterness, anger, selfishness, pride, greed, and dissention. We say that we love everybody but don’t act like we love anyone. Our words and our actions are very different.
When I was growing up my father never once told me to: Do as I say. He taught me by example. When he wanted me to learn patience he was patient with me. When he wanted to show me generosity he put me in a situation to be generous. He taught me self control with his words, but showed me how to do it with his life. He told me what it means to view others as better than yourself and to think of others before yourself but he showed me how to do it by doing it himself. My father lived what he wanted me to be so he never had to say much. The only time my father would have to talk me through something was when I rebelled. I knew what I should do because I had seen him do it. I never had to be told how to keep from yelling when I got mad. My dad explained to me why I shouldn’t but I never had to be taught how because watching my dad live, I saw how in him. What he said to me only reaffirmed what I saw him doing.
That is how we ought to live. What we say we believe should be seen in how we live. When we say that we love everyone- that should be apparent by how we treat everyone. For if you love someone, truly, you treat them differently than you treat someone you do not love. If we could even do this with our friends and family we would be accomplishing a great feat. The problem is more often than not people care for themselves far more than anyone else. Even Christians…perhaps especially Christians. We say we love people. We even believe we love people. But the truth is seen in our actions. At the end of the day- we love ourselves more than anyone.
1Co 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 1Co 13:5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 1Co 13:6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 1Co 13:7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1Co 13:8 Love never fails.
How many of you can say these things are true of your life? Are you patient, kind? Or when something doesn’t go your way do you lose your temper and attack somebody for it.? Do you envy? Are you jealous when your Christian brother succeeds? Do you boast of your accomplishments, achievements, works, or deeds? Are you proud of your service, your education, your success, your work? Do you seek after what you want or what others want? Are you easily angered? If so it is not love that you are showing.
The difference between God and man is that God does and says the same thing. He says: “I am love” then He sends His son to the cross to die for the sins of the people who rebelled against Him. When we say we love someone it is rarely because we would sacrifice on a daily basis for their happiness. It is rarely because we care of them more than ourselves. We may say that we do: we may say ‘ I love you so much I would die for you’ but the truth is you wouldn’t really even live for them. Do you sacrifice what you want for another person? Love does. Do you strain yourself to help someone else? Love does. Do you ignore and forget the wrongs that are done to you? Love does. Do you think of other (ALL OTHERS) before yourself? Love does. Do you resist the urge to lose your temper and attack another person even when they have wronged you? Love does. Do you praise others instead of yourself? Love does. In fact love does a lot of things that we do not, even when we say we love each other.
Do you know why so many marriages fail today? There is a single connection between most failed marriages. Not all, but many. It is a simple mindset: WHAT ABOUT ME? What about me? I…I…I…me…me…me. That mindset I promise is the leading cause of a failed marriage. Both or even one party thinks that it is all about them. Sure very few of them would actually accept that they do it- but the truth is: the marriage is all about them and what they want. They love the person so long as that person meets their needs, makes them feel good, satisfies their desires. But as soon as they feel want. As soon as they are not getting ‘theirs’ its all over. The leading cause of divorce: WHAT ABOUT ME? It is selfishness that ends marriage.
It’s one thing to say it. It’s another thing to do it. You call yourself a Christian. So do it. You have already said it…now its time to walk the walk. We serve God. God is not a say one thing and do another God. He is what He says and He says what He is. The word and deeds of God are the same. As Christians…shouldn’t yours be? If Christ lived what He said and you claim to follow Christ…shouldn’t you be doing what you say? Shouldn’t you be living what you believe?
We are not DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO Christians. We are followers of Christ. Who is the word of God incarnated. He is God’s word in the flesh. Perhaps we should reflect that in our lives.
